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PEESECUTION OF THE JEWS

IN KUSSIA

1881.

Reprinted from the " Times,'^ ivith Map and Appendix.

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SPOTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE, LONDON.

1882.

MAP OF LOCALITIES in RUSSIA,

MENTIONED IN THIS PAMPHLET.

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THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.

It is time that the English public should become aware of the
character and extent of the persecutions which the Jews of
Russia have undergone during the past year. Tlie Warsaw
riots have come merely as the last term (as yet) of a series
of similar outbreaks which have ravaged the South and West
of Russia to an extent of which people outside th^t country
have not the faintest conception. The news wliich have crossed
the borders have been of the most meagre description, chiefly in
the form of telegrams announcing that anti-Jewish riots had
occurred in such and such a place. Coming at various intervals,
they have altogether failed to strike the imagination, and it is
due solely to this cause that the public opinion of England,
so ready to undertake the cause of suffering humanity, has
not given vigorous expression to its feelings of abhorrence.
During the past eight months a tract of country, equal in area
to the British Isles and France combined, stretching from the
Baltic to the Black Sea, has been the scene of horrors that
have hitherto only been perpetrated during times of war.
Men ruthlessly murdered, tender infants dashed to death, or
roasted alive in their own homes, married women the prey of
a brutal lust that has often caused their death, and young girls
violated in the sight of their relatives by soldiers who should
have been the guardians of their honour — these have been the
deeds with which the population of Southern Russia has been

stained since last April. In the face of these horrors, loss of
property is of little moment, yet they have been accompanied
by the razing of whole streets inhabited by Jews, by the
systematic firing of the Jewish quarters of towns in Western
Russia, and by the pillage of all the propert}^ on which thou-
sands of Jewish families were dependent for existence.

In addition to all this, many Russian towns have heartlessly
seized the occasion to expel from their limits crowds of Jew^s
v/ho have been left by this inhuman and deliberate measure
homeless amidst masses infuriated against them. And during
these scenes of carnage and pillage the local authorities
have stood by with folded arms, doing little or nothing to
prevent their occurrence and recurrence, and allowing the
ignorant peasantry to remain up to this day under the impres-
sion that a ukase existed ordering the property of the Jews to
be handed over to their fellow-Russians. So far from publicly
expressing reprobation of these outrages, the Minister has
issued an edict clearly betraying that the Russian authorities
fully share the prejudice of the mob, and contemplate adding
to the burdens and inequalities which have been the direct
cause of the embittered feeling that has led to these dis-
orders.

Ever since the Grerman anti-Semites had raised an outcry
against their Jewish fellow-citizens, it had been feared that the
movement would spread to Russia, and there take a form more
adapted to the less civilised state of the country. \Vhen,
therefore, the assassination of the Czar on March 3rd of last
year had roused all Russia to the highest pitch of excitement,
it was confidently predicted that the approaching Easter would
see an outbreak against the Jews. It was said afterwards that
the prediction was aided in its fulfilment by Panslavist emis-
saries from Moscow, who planned all the subsequent troubles.
It is at least certain that rumours of a rising had reached
Elizabethgrad, and caused the heads of the Jewish community,
who form a third of its thirty thousand inhabitants, to apply
for special protection from the Governor. No notice was

taken of tlie appeal, and on Wednesday, April 27, the dreaded
outbreak took place. A religious dispute in a cabaret led
to a scuffle which grew into a general melee till the mob
obtained possession of the dram-shop and rifled it of its
contents. Inflamed by the drink thus obtained, the rioters
proceeded to the Jewish quarter, and commenced a systematic
destruction of the Jewish shops and warehouses. At first some
attempt was made by the Jews to protect their property ; but
this only served to increase the violence of the mob, which pro-
ceeded to attack the dwellings of the Jews and to wreck the
synagogues. Amid the horrors that ensued a Jew named
Zolotwenski lost his life, and no fewer than thirty Jewesses were
outraged. At one place, two young girls, in dread of
violation, threw themselves from the w^indows. Meanwhile
the military had been called out, but only to act at first
as spectators and afterwards as active participators. One section
of the mob formed of rioters and soldiers broke into the dwelling
of an old man named Pelikoff, and on his attemptiag to save
his daughter from a fate worse than death, they threw him
down from the roof, while twenty soldiers proceeded to work
their will on bis unfortunate daughter. When seen by the
correspondent who narrates this fact, Pelikoff was in a state
of hopeless madness, and his daughter completely ruined in
mind and body. The whole Jewish quarter was at the mercy
of the mob till April the 29th. During the two days of the
riots, 500 houses and 100 shops were destroyed, whole streets
being razed to the ground. It may be added that the property
destroyed and stolen was reckoned at two million roubles.

The evidence of pent-up an ti- Jewish passion displayed by
these scenes encouraged the foes of the Jews to wider and more
systematic attacks. In the excesses that followed, the masses
soon got to recognise professional ringleaders from Grreat
Kussia. These distributed placards, found afterwards to have
been issued from a secret printing-press at Kiew, in which it
was declared that the Czar had given his orthodox subjects the
property held by the Jews. In most cases the very day on

which a riot might be expected was announced beforehand,
Sunday and Saints' days being chosen as the days when the lower
orders were at liberty. After a week's pause, a whole series of riots
broke out, commencing on May 7th at Smielo, near Czergassy,
where 13 men were killed and 20 wounded, and 1,600 were
left without homes. Next day, Sunday, May 8th, a most
serious riot broke out at Kiew, once the capital of Eussia, and
still an important town, containing 20,000 Jews in a population
of 140,000. Here the riot had been definitely announced for
the Sunday, and the Jews sent a deputation to the Grovernor,
requesting him to call out his soldiers to prevent disturbance.
He bluntly refused, saying that he would not " trouble his
soldiers for the sake of a pack of Jews." During the riot which
broke out on the day fixed, the police and the soldiers again
acted the same part that they had done at Elizabethgrad. The
first procedure of the mob had been to storm the dram-shops,
and, staving in the brand}^ casks, to wallow in the spirit. During
the period of licence that followed, four Jews were killed, 25
women and girls were violated, of whom five died in consequence,
as was proved at the subsequent trials. At the liouse of Mordecai
Wienarski,the mob, disappointed in the search for plunder, caught
up his little child three years old and brutally threw it out of
the window. The child fell dead at the feet of a company of
Cossacks who were drawn up outside, yet no attempt was made
to arrest the murderers. At last, when several houses were set
on fire, the military received orders to make arrests, which they
proceeded to execute with much vigour, making 1,500 prisoners,
among whom 150 were Jews arrested for protecting their lives
and properties. No less than 2,000 Jews were left without
shelter by the dismantling or the burning of their houses, and
for the relief of immediate necessities a Kiew Committee soon
afterwards had to disburse the sum of £30,000.

Next day similar scenes of violence occurred at Browary, in
the neighbourhood of Kiew, in the province of Czernigow. On
the same day still more disgraceful deeds were enacted at
Berezowka, in the province of Cherson. Here lust seemed more

ajDrincipal motive than plunder. While the Jews of the village
were at synagogue a mob attacked the Jewesses and violated
many of them, causing the death of three ; others who escaped
the worse evil were driven into the river, and nine ultimately
died from the effects of the exposure. When the Jews came to
the rescue, two of them -were killed and a young lad stoned to
death.

The neighbourhood of Kiew was again visited on the next
day, May lOlh, at Konotop and at Wassilkow. At both places
the attacks had been planned ; at the former, wooden crosses
were placed before the doors of Christians that their houses
might be spared, while at the latter the day of riot had been
announced, and the report diligently spread about that the Czar
had given the property of the Jews away. At Wassilkow and
in the neighbourhood eight lives were lost, seven at one fell
swoop at the inn kept by a Jew named Eykelmann. He was
forced to admit the mob to his wdne-cellars, and, during his
absence in search of assistance, the drunken rioters cut the
throats of his wife and six children.

By this time the chief towns and villages of Southern Russia
w^ere ablaze with violence and riot. Throughout the whole of
the provinces of Cherson, Taurida, Ekaterinoslav, Poltawa,
Kiew, Czernigow, and Podolia the notion had spread fast as
Avildfire that the Jews and their property had been handed over
to the tender mercies of the populace, a notion that seems almost
justified in the face of the inertness of the Governor- General in
checking the riots at Elizabethgrad and Kiew. At Wasiljew
the Mayor even read a copy of the supposed ukase to the citizens,
and a riot would have ensued had not the village priest done
his duty and declared his belief that no such ukase existed.
At Alexandrowsk, on the banks of the Dnieper, the operatives
carried out what they thought to be the will of the Czar, on
May 13th, rendering 300 out of the 400 Jewish families of
the place homeless, and destroying property to the amount of
400,000 roubles. As usual, the riots were previously announced,
and the appeal to the Governor to send for additional troops

proved fruitless. Even after the riots had commenced, a tele-
gram despatched to the capital town of the province, Ekaterino-
slav, was delayed for four hours b}^ the Grovernor before it was
sent off. At Ekaterinoslav itself a projected riot was happily
prevented by the issue of a proclamation by the local
authorities declaring the Jews to be true subjects of the
Czar, and entitled to protection of their property. At
Polonnoye, near Kiew, a disaster was averted by the fore-
thought of the Mayor, who changed the market-day to
Saturday, and on the peasants complaining, he read them a
lesson on the utility of the Jews as middle-men, and induced
them to promise not to molest their Jewish fellow-citizens.

From Alexandrowsk the instigators paid a visit to the Jewish
agricultural colonies in the province of Ekaterinoslav, which
have now been established for more than 40 years. The
chief centres, Gulaypole, Orjechow, and Marianpol were visited
in turn, and though no violence seems to have been done to the
persons of the Jews, their farms Y>^ere almost entirely destroyed.
At Orjechow the instigators who led the mob w^ere dressed as
police officers, and produced a document falsely purporting
to be the proclamation of the Czar. The farming implements
were all destroyed, and 500 cattle and 10,000 sheep driven off.
At Kamichewka, the Jews adroitly turned the supposed ukase
of the Czar into a safeguard. Hearing that the rioters were
advancing to attack, they brought the keys of their houses to
their Christian neighbours, saying that if the ukase were true,
it would be better that their neighbours should have their pro-
perty than the rioters, and if the ukase proved to be untrue, of
course their good neighbours would return the keys. The
Christians of the village accordingly repulsed the rioters, and
in a few days the Jews of Kamichewka were again in possession
of their own property.

Up to this time, the riots had chiefly arisen among the
urban populations, but they now spread into the rural districts
and reached every little village where even a single Jew resided.
A Jew was murdered at Easdory, a few miles south-east of

Orjechow, and at Znamenka, near Nikopol, on the Dnieper, a
Jewish innkeeper named Resser was murdered and his wife
dishonoured, after which both were cast into the river. At
Balka, also on the bank of the Dnieper, there was only one
Jew, Allowicz by name. A band of ruffians went to his house
on May 17, and finding him absent, they violated his wife, and,
to conceal the crime, set fire to the house while the poor
woman lay helpless in it. All this was witnessed by her little
daughter, crouched in a ditch hard by. On the preceding day,
another tragedy had occurred at Kitzkis, where the house of
one Preskoff was set on fire, and he with two little children
left to roast in it, Avhile the wife and mother looked on, vainly
appealing for mercy, to the ruffianly perpetrators of the crime.
At Grregoriewk, a Jewish innkeeper named Rieffmann was
cooped in one of his own barrels, and cast into the Dnieper.
Again, at Kanzeropol, a man named Enman was murdered
brutally and his wife violated and afterwards killed. Such were
the deeds that were done on the banks of the Dnieper, during
the month of May.

Meantime, the seaport Odessa had likewise been the scene
of an anti-Jewish riot. Originally announced for May 13, it
was postponed till the Sunday, May 15, without, however, any
precautions being taken by the Grovernor, who had as usual been
duly warned of the impending outbreak. Though only lasting
for six hours, the riot resulted in the death of a Jew named
Handelmann, and eleven cases of violation are reported, one re-
sulting in death. Here the Jews seemed to have been most
energetic in their resistance. Of the 800 arrests made, 150
were Jews, 26 of whom were afterwards charged with carrying
revolvers without a permit. The police estimated the
damage done at 1,137,831 roubles, while those more im-
mediately concerned raised the sum to three millions. Similar
scenes took place on the same day at Wolwezysk, on the
borders, where a riot had been announced for the Sunday.
A week afterwards, the lower orders of Berdyczew rose ao-ainst
the Jews, and on May 24th, a riotous 'disturbance occurred at
Zmerinka, in Podolia.

A 3

Thus, within a month of the first outbreak, almost every
town of importance in Southern Kussia had seen such horrors
as we have described. Apart from the influence of the ring-
leaders, the rioters had no cause to incite them to rapine except
the force of contagion, and the impression that the Czar had
really transferred all Jewish property to his orthodox subjects.
If once this impression had been officially removed, the
epidemic would have been checked. In many cases it was
distinctly shown that the peasants liked the Jews, and
jnly pillaged because they thought it had been ordered.
At Bougaifka, for example, a few days after the peasants
had destroyed the property of the Jews, they became contrite,
and gave their Jewish neighbours 800 roubles as some
sompeusation for the damage they themselves had caused.
In the face of such a fact, it is tolerably certain that if
the supposed proclamation had been energetically and officially
denied, the riots might never have reached the extent that they
eventually did. The contagion spread as far as Saratow in
early June, from thence to Astrakhan, and even reached a town
near Somsk, in Siberia, and caused an anti-Jewish riot there.
The only bright spot in all this gloom was the condition of
Poland, where Jews and Poles have always lived in amity.
This continued till General Ignatiew directed the Grovernor of
Poland to appoint commissions of experts to consider how the
Jews should be dealt with, to which fact persons on the spot
attribute the rise of anti-Jewish feeling that culminated
in the Warsaw riots. But outside Poland these outbursts
of popular prejudice placed a population of nearly two
millions in perpetual dread of their lives and property.
At times they dared not remove their clothes night or
day, fearing that they might have to flee at any moment.
Ever since last April, that feeling of fear and insecurity has
ruled the lives of all Kussian Jews.

Not a month, scarcely a week, has passed since then without
some outbreak or other occurring to confirm these fears and
render them the more acute. After the Saratow affair, on June

8th, in which 30 Jews were wounded, there was a comparative
lull in the more violent forms of outrage. But early in July
the neighbourhood of Kiew and the banks of the Dnieper were
once more visited by scenes which recall the horrors of the
Middle Ages. On Sunday, the 12th, open rioting took place at
Perejaslaw, which was characterised by the fact that the mob
were led to the attack by the sons of the merchants of the
district. Commercial rivalry adding its sting to religious and
social differences, the struggle was here of a more violent nature
than usual, and, while 30 of the mob were wounded, no less
than 200 of the Jews received serious injuries at the hands of
their neighbours, and three died in consequence; 176 houses
were destroyed, some by fire. At Borispol, on July 21st, scenes
occurred during the riots worthy of the worst days of the Com-
mune. Women, for almost the first time, made their appearance
on the scene as assailants, and added to its horrors. During the
rioting they encouraged their friends on to the fight, and were
seen to assist them to violate the Jewesses of the village by
holding down the unfortunate creatures. A curious petition
afterwards sent from this neighbourhood, demanding, among
other things, that Jewesses should not be allowed to wear silks
and satins, may throw some light on the motives of these
viragos.

The reader will be by this time satiated with the horrible
crimes which have been laid before him. Tlie imagination
may now be able to take in the full meaning of the bare
statement, so frequent during last year, that anti-Jewish
riots had taken place in such-and-such a district of Southern
Eussia. Suffice it then to add that the month of August saw
such riots at Njezin on the 2nd, at Lubny on the 8th, at
Borzny on the 18th, and at Itchny on the 28th. If September
was comparatively free from disorders, the cessation must be
attributed rather to the needs of the harvest than to the
quieting of the popular mind. For, early in October, the
mob attacked the Jews of Balwierzyski, in the government
of Sawalki. October 3rd was the Day of Atonement, the

A 4

most sacred day of the Hebrew calendar, and the mob took
the occasion to destroy the synagogue and wreck the Jewish
quarter, where one Jew was killed and twenty wounded. Even
as late as November, the myth of the spoliation ukase imposed
upon the peasantry. On the loth of that month, a band of a
hundred peasants at Czarwona, near Zitomir, pillaged the pro-
perty of the Jews under that pretext. Lastly, to show the ex-
citable state of the popular mind, the Sarah Bernhardt riots at
Kiew on IS'ov. 18th, and at Odessa on Nov. 27th, proved that a
mere suspicion that the actress was a Jewess was sufficient to
arouse once more the fury of the mob, and cause them again
to attack the Jewish quarter of those towns.

Finally, this catalogue of horrors must be concluded by a
reference to the riots at Warsaw, on Christmas and the following
days. The detailed events of those days, when 300 houses and
600 shops were pillaged and devastated, and thousands of victims
were rendered homeless and reduced to beggary, are doubtless
fresh in every one's memory, but certain facts must be again
referred to, owing to their typical character. In the first place,
the riot was clearly planned, the alarm of fire being simultaneously
raised in at least two churches, and the mob being directed by
men who spoke Polish with a Eussian accent. The culpable
neglect of the military authorities of Warsaw in refusing to
make use of the 20,000 men forming its garrison, finds its
counterpart in the similar behaviour of the Governors of Kiew,
Elizabeth grad, and Odessa earlier in the year. The behaviour
of the police, who are described as " only interfering to prevent
the Jews from protecting themselves," exactly tallies with their
behaviour elsewhere. And, finally, the attempts that were
made by telegraph officials and others to prevent the true state
of the case from reaching the rest of Europe, may serve to
account for the extraordinary fact that the enormities of the
past nine months have only found the faintest echo in the press
of Europe. Thus, while outrages on women were openly com-
mitted, the knowledge of this fact has hitherto been kept from
crossing the borders.

The outrages we have recounted above, though, no doubt,
the most important, are far from including all the similar events
that have occurred during the past year. They have been
selected from a list of over IGO towns and villages in which
cases of riot, rapine, murder, and spoliation have been known
to occur during the last nine months of 1881. Out of these,
information was collected from about 45 towns and villages in
Southern Kussia. In these alone are reported 23 murders of
men, women, and children, 17 deaths caused by violation, and
no fewer than 225 cases of outrages on Jewesses.

Such have been the horrors that throughout the past year
have assailed the Israelites who inhabit Eussia. Nor is there
any indication that these atrocities will cease during the present
year, unless the Russian Grovernment will intervene in the
sacred cause of civilisation and humanity.

II.

Besides appealing to the blind passions of the mob, the
Jew-haters of Russia have during the past year resorted to
more systematic efforts to harass the hapless Israelites. The
Russian Moujik has a method almost peculiar to himself of
expressing his rage and hatred. Moscow is but the most
celebrated instance of periods of Russian history when incen-
diarism has been the order of the day. Whenever the fever
point of excitement is reached, arson is usually the direction in
which it overflows. So well is this recognised in Russia that
the peasants have a technical name for the deliberate firing of
towns : the " red cock " is said to crow. During the past year
this method of revenge has been resorted to on a large scale
against the Jews of Russia, especially in the West. By the end of
June the " red cock " had crowed over fifteen towns in Western
Russia, including Mohilew, containing 25,000 inhabitants, and
Witebsk, with 23,000, and Slonim, with 20,000, as well as
smaller towns like Wolkowysk, Schirwindt, Augustowo, Nowo
Grudek, Ponovicz, and Lipsk. Many thousands of Jews were

rendered homeless by this means, and on July 3, 6,000 Jews lost
their homes by fire at Minsk, 4,800 being deprived of every means
of subsistence at the same time. The town of Pinsk, in the
same province, suffered a like fate. And shortly afterwards
a conflagration took place at Koretz, in Wolhynia, in which
30 lives were lost, and 5,000 souls left without a home.
Every week added to the number of fires in towns inhabited by
Jews, till by the end of September the list extended to forty-
one towns. This probably involved the loss of home to
20,000 Jews.

To the mass of homeless and penniless creatures in Southern
Kussia must be added the many victims of pillage. The
violence of the mobs often wrecked whole streets of houses as
completely as any fire, and we know of 2,000 who were thus
rendered homeless at Kiew, 1,600 at Smielo, 1,000 at Konotop,
600 at Ouchow, and 300 at Obuchow. The value of property
destroyed, in the South has been reckoned to reach £16,000,000
sterling.

It is possible that an aggregate of a hundred thousand Jewish
families has thus been reduced to poverty. The ranks of the
ruined were increased by those who dared not apply for their
just debts, while in many cases the peasantry have deliberately
" Boycotted " the Jews. It must be further remembered that in
several places the Jews anticipated riots by evacuating their
homes ; thus, near Perejaslaw, after the riot at that place, no
fewer than 17 villages in the neighbourhood were deserted by the
Jews, and the same doubtless took place in other localities.
Men have fled from the villages in which they have resided all
their lives. Even after the events of Kiew the Jews of the
neighbourhood, fearing the spread of disorder, crowded
at the rate of one hundred families a day into the town
which had so lately shown itself hostile. Others fled towards
the borders, and during the summer months a camp of
refugees in the open air, at Podwoloczyska, contained no less
than 1,500 souls, including children of the tenderest age. A
few, who still possessed some means, attempted to flee across

the frontier, but many were stopped. Of 5,000 who managed
to reach Brody, on the Austrian border, in a perfectly helpless
state, 2,000 still remain there, liuddled in cellars. What
horrors are in store for the thousands and thousands who
have been left to face the rigours of a Russian winter with no
resources, no one outside Russia can possibly imagine.

Meanwhile, the municipalities, with the connivance of the
local governments, have taken every means in their power to
add to the misery of the situation. With rough logic, they
argued that, as these riots were directed against the Jews,
if there had been no Jews, there would have been no riots.
They accordingly petitioned the governors of their provinces to
issue orders for the expulsion of the Jews from towns in which
they had no legal right of domicile. The Jews of Russia are
only allowed to reside in twenty-eight of its provinces, often
only in certain towns, and the number of permits to reside is, at
least theoretically, limited. For the last twenty years, however,
these barbarous laws have been somewhat allowed to fall into
desuetude, and many Jews have ventured beyonfl the narrow
limits assigned to them. Leaving aside the general question, it
was clearly a most heartless act to add to the miseries of the
Jewish population at the moment when the mob were eagerly
scanning the disposition of the authorities to discover to what
lengths they might proceed with impunity. Whatever be the
legality of the measure, the occasion for introducing its rigorous
enforcement was inhumanly inopportune, and lays the corpora-
tions who enforced it liable to a charge of complicity with the
more lawless persecutors of the Jews. At Kiew, for example,
even before the excitement had entirely subsided, the
Governor ordered a stringent scrutiny of the right of
domicile among the Jews of that town. By July 29th
the strict enforcement of these harsh regulations had resulted
in the expulsion of 4,000 Jews, and quite recently new rules
have been issued in Kiew, as well as Odessa, still further
limiting the number of Jews capable of residing in either
city. At Liebenthal, near Odessa, the municipality, of course

with the permission of the Governor of Odessa, expelled from
fifteen to twenty Jewish families, and imposed a fine of fifty
roubles upon anyone harbouring a Jew for a single night.
From Podolsk 100 families have been expelled, while whole
regions of Podolia have been relentlessly cleared of the Jews ;
the towns of Kromonitz, Dubno, Constantinow, Wladimir, and
Wolinsk being the principal offenders. More to the east
the town of Charkow expelled Jews at the beginning of
August. At Orel, in the Government of that name, the
expulsion has recently taken place on a large scale, and under
peculiarly cruel circumstances. In that town 900 families
of Jews, numbering 5,000 souls, have hitherto dwelt in peace
and goodwill with their neighbours. Soon after the outbreak of
the disturbances the Governor of Orel gave orders that all Jews
must quit its bounds by September 1st. When that day arrived
a further grace was allowed them till October 25th, and on the
latter day the Jewish congregation met for the last time in the
synagogue, and after tearful prayers removed the sacred scrolls
and left in mournful procession tlie town that had been their
home. Nearly 400 of them, however, did not even possess
the means of departure, and ventured to remain, only to be
thrust out by the police into the snow on the following night.
In other places, where no legal objection could be taken to the
domicile of the Jews, petitions were sent by the authorities
requesting the imposition of all sorts of restrictions. They
desire to restrict Jewish commerce in grain, to limit the sending*
of Jewish children to the higher gymnasia and universities,
thus stultifying their own complaints as to the want of culture
among the Jews.

Many of the local Commissions would prevent Jews from
holding " harandas," erroneously described as " dram-shops,'^
but really general stores, at which wine and spirits are sold. We
have already referred to the Perejaslaw petition, that Jewesses
be not allowed to wear silks and satins. These expulsions and
petitions have formed the sole answer which the town councils
of Kussia have given to the Jewish question.

Meanwhile, what has been done in this emergency ? It is
by no means difficult to suggest what could and should have
been done from the first appearance of an ti- Jewish feeling
in the south. If orders had been given and published that
every Governor-Greneral should supply Jewish communities
with a guard, on application from the Rabbi and the elders
of the community ; if an edict had been passed rendering all
damage to Jewish property by riots chargeable to the communal
rates of the town or village ; if, above all, a proclamation had
been issued declaring that all Jewish subjects were as much en-
titled to protection of life and property as their orthodox fellow-
citizens, and denying the existence of any ukase purporting to
" convey " their property, it is safe to assert that the disorders
would not have spread far, and certainly would not have lasted
long. Instead of this, at Kiew instructions were issued that
the military should not be called out till the last extremity.

As early as May 23rd, the Czar, having been appealed to by
a deputation of the Jews of St. Petersburg, headed by Baron
Griinzburg, expressed his intention of dealing with the evil.
Accordingly Count Kutaissow was despatched to the South to
make inquiries. He returned, it would seem, with the result that
still further inquiries were necessary. General Ignatiew now
took the opportunity to introduce a system by which the
Zemstvos, or provincial assemblies, might be superseded by local
committees of experts on this special subject ; and on September
3rd the following rescript was issued.

" For some time the Government has given its attention to
" the Jews, and to their relations to the rest of the inhabitants
" of the empire, wdth the view of ascertaining the sad condition
" of the Christian inhabitants, brought about by the conduct
" of the Jews in business matters.

" For the last twenty years the Government has endea-
" voured, in various ways, to bring the Jews near to its other
" inhabitants, and has given them almost equal rights with the
" indigenous population. The movements, however, against
" the Jews, which began last spring in the South of Russia, and

" extended to Central Russia, prove incontestably that all its
" endeavours have been of no avail, and that ill-feeling prevails
" now as much as ever between the Jewish and the Christian
" inhabitants of those parts. Now, the proceedings at the trial
" of those charged with rioting, and other evidence, bear witness
" to the fact that the main cause of those movements and riots
" — to which the Russians, as a nation, are strangers — was but a
" commercial one, and is as follows :

" During the last twenty years the Jews have gradually pos-
" sessed themselves of not only every trade and business in all
" its branches, but also of a great part of the land by buying or
" farming it. With few exceptions they have, as a body, devoted
" their attention, not to enriching or benefiting the country,
" but to defrauding by their wiles its inhabitants, and particu-
" larly its poor inhabitants. This conduct of theirs has called
" forth protests on the part of the people, as manifested in acts
" of violence and robbery. The Grovernment, whilst on the
" one hand doing its best to put down the disturbances, and to
" deliver the Jews from oppression and slaughter, have also on
" the other hand thought it a matter of urgency and justice to
" adopt stringent measures in order to put an end to the
" oppression practised by the Jews on the inhabitants, and to
" free the country from their malpractices, which were, as is
" known, the cause of the agitation.

" With this view, it has appointed Commissions (in all the
" towns inhabited by Jews), whose duty it is to inquire into the
" following matters :

" I. What are the trades of the Jews which are injurious to

" the inhabitants of the place ?
" II. What makes it impracticable to put into force the
" former laws limiting the rights of the Jews in the
" matter of buying and farming land, the trade in in-
*' toxicants and usury ?
" III. How can those laws be altered so that they shall no
" longer be enabled to evade them, or what new laws are
" required to stop their pernicious conduct in business ?

" IV. Give (besides the answers to the foregoing questions)
" the following additional information :

" (a) On the usury practised by the Jews in their dealings
" with Christians, in cities, towns, and villages.

" (6) The number of public-houses kept by Jews in their
" own name, or in that of a Christian.

" (c) The number of persons in service with Jews, or under
" their control.

" (d) The extent (acreage) of the land in their possession,
" by buying or farming.

" (e) The number of Jewish agriculturists.

" In addition to the above-named information to be sup-
" plied, every Commission is empowered to report on such
" conduct and action of the Jews as may have a local interest
" and importance, and to submit the same to the Ministry."

That after the events of May, June, and July, any person in
authority in Russia should in August have been thinking of aught
else but the protection of Jewish lives and the honour of Jewish
women is the first surprise that meets us in this remarkable docu-
ment. But that no word of reprimand should be addressed to
those that had indulged in such misdeeds is a severer surprise
still ; the only allusion to the whole catalogue of horrors being
couched in the half-apologetic allusion to *' protests " that
have taken so deplorable a form. It is certain that the direct
cause of the objection of the Russians to their Jewish fellow-
citizens is the natural result of the Russian laws which restrict
their rights and mark them off from the rest of the nation. It
is the lesson taught by all experience, that the only solution of
the Jewish question is the granting of full equality. It is
absolutely certain that the whole body of Jews, forming one-
eighth of the population amid which they dwell, cannot be
accused of "exploitation," or '* usury," as imputed by the
rescript, the fact being that the chief industries of Russia are
in the hands of the thrifty and hard-working Jews. Again,
objection to innkeeping by Jews is clearly a gross injustice^
seeing that statistics show drimkenness to be more prevalent

in provinces where Jews do not reside. But, waiving all this,
surely the poor women who had been violated, the little chil-
dren who had been murdered, the farmers who had been
robbed of their cattle and implements, could not be accused
of these charges, and it was accordingly a refinement of cruelty
to issue this document, teeming with animus at a time when
the passions of the mob had been raised against all Jews
without distinction of person, occupation, age, or sex. The
Jewish question at the present moment is not whether the
Jews should be prevented from competing with the Eussians
in certain trades, but whether the lives of three millions and
a half of Jews shall be left at the mercy of the passions of
the mob. A document like this, far from helping to solve the
question, rather adds to its complexity by showing clearly to
the populace that the authorities share their prejudices. The
appointments to commissions showed the same bias : at the
head of the Kiew Commission was placed Greneral Drudkoff, the
Grovernor of Kiew, who initiated the proceedings of the first
meeting by declaring " either I or the Jews must go." On
another Commission was placed M. Chigaryne, whose only claim
to be considered an expert on the Jewish question was that
he had written a pamphlet entitled " The Annihilation of the
Jews."

At Odessa, the first Commission was dismissed because it
had recommended the only true solution of the questions put
by the Minister for the Interior, the granting to the Jews
full equality of rights and equal liberty of settlement with their
fellow-citizens of other creeds. A second Commission was there-
upon appointed with views more in consonance with the spirit of
the rescript. When the Governor of Warsaw, Count Albidinski,
was ordered to publish the circular, he at first refused, saying
that Jews and Poles had always lived on such friendly terms
that no Commission was necessary. He was, however, forced
to publish the rescript, and competent observers attribute the
rise of anti-Semitic feeling in Warsaw mainly to this publi-
cation.

These acts, and the tone of the circular itself, made clear to
the Commissions what was expected of them. They have
accordingly made recommendations, 'which will, if adojjted,
bring back all the horrors of the Middle Ages on the unfortunate
Jews of Eussia. Thus, among other proposals, they have
advised that Jews should not be allowed to build synagogues
C)r establish schools and orphan asylums, that they should not
be permitted to reside in villages, nor own houses or landed
property, that Jews should not lease factories or sell spirituous
liquors, or be apothecaries. Beside this, it is rumoured that it is
intended to restrict still further the right of domicile, and to
allow no Jew to reside within eighty miles of the borders.
In short, it seems to be the intention to make Eussia an
impossible home for the Jews, or perhaps even to doom them
to complete extinction. The Eusso-Jewish question may,
therefore, be summed up in these words : Are three and a
half millions of human beings to perish because they are Jews ?

APPENDIX,

LIST

167 PLACES IN KUSSIA

WHERE JEWS HAVE BEEN

PEESECUTED

IN 1881.

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